Debra Kachel

Deb Kachel formerly was the District Library Supervisor for the Ephrata Area School District, Ephrata, PA, where she also served as a high school librarian for almost 34 years. She assisted in developing the Mansfield School Library & Information Technologies (SL&IT) graduate program and was one of the original part-time instructors in 2000. She has written or assisted in writing most of the competitive scholarship grants that the SL&IT program has been awarded from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). As part of the IMLS grants, she also wrote and facilitated an online school library advocacy program for school administrators, Leveraging School Libraries to Improve Student Learning.

As Co-Chairperson of the Legislation Committee for the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA), Kachel has been engaged in legislative actions resulting in the passage of PA HR 987 (2010), the PA School Library Study (2011) conducted by the PA State Board of Education, and the PA House Hearing on School Library Funding (August 2012). She has also worked closely with the Pennsylvania PTA resulting in the PA PTA Resolution on Public School Libraries, 2011.

On behalf of PSLA, Kachel currently is the Project Director of the PA School Library Project, an IMLS National Leadership research grant studying the impact of school library programs in Pennsylvania with Keith Curry Lance and the Education Law Center.

Experience

–present

Professor of School Library and Information Technologies Program, Mansfield University of Pennsylvania